Last night KAC held an observing session. We only decided at the last minute so we were not expecting a lot of people. In the end we had about 12 or 13 people present.We had 8" and 8.75" dobs an etx70 and a skylux.
We started the night off pointing out some constellations to the new members, and how you can use one to find another. We looked at Ursa Major / Minor, Cassiopeia. We moved south and looked at Orion, Gemini, Auriga, Taurus and Canis major.
This was followed by looking at a sample of celestial objects including the usual suspects, M42, Pleiades, Double Cluster, M31 and M1. As we were looking I tried my best to explain what we were seeing and hopefully the majority understood. We also had a look at Betelgeuse, Rigel and Sirius.
We finished off with a look at Saturn, which left everyone suitably impressed. After that a lot of people filed home which left a few of us on site to carry on observing.
With no real observing plan I spent some time observing the wisps of gas in the Orion Nebula and marveling at the extent of it. I had a quick look at NGC 2158 in Gemini, before moving onto Auriga and looking at some of the clusters and nebulosity there.
Managed to track down the flaming star nebula, but was unable to make out any detail, just a bit of haze extending around the star with anextension to the north.
Next up was a cluster NGC 1893 and its surrounding nebulosity IC410. this is a nice region, and features a nice tight but long cluster which has lines of stars on a hazy background. There are some dark patches in the region which stand out against a hazy/starry background.
Finally for this region was M38 and its neighbour NGC1907. This pairing is like M35 and its companion, and for me was the highlight of the evening. I also had a quick look at M79 in the 8.75" dob under high power and was struggling with resolution.
The rest of the night was spent looking at saturn and M42 with some general viewing in the 10X50's.
A good night and well needed
Cheers
Trevor
  